"Sermons and Reflections of the Word"

Speak: “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:18). Light the fourth candle for love. Let us see love in the Lord! Read: Isaiah 7:10-16 and Matthew 1:18-25 Reflect: Read and reflect on Psalm 80:19. Remember that salvation is a gift of love from the Lord. What other gifts has God given you today? Engage: Show an act of kindness to a child with a parent who is ill or incarcerated, or take dinner to the medical team at your local emergency room or urgent-care clinic. Pray: Gracious God, we seek you everywhere with expectant eyes that invite us to see love in the world today. Amen.

First Sunday of Advent: See Hope Speak: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” (Ps. 122:1, NRSV). Light the first candle for hope. Let us see hope in the Lord! Read: Isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44 Reflect: Where do you see hope in Isaiah 2 and Matthew 24? Reflect on the hope that God’s light will shine on the mountaintop, revealing the goodness of new life. Engage: Take a prayer walk with another person. This time apart with God can occur on a mountain, in your neighborhood, or just about anywhere. As you walk, look around you for signs of hope. Pray: Gracious God, we seek you everywhere with expectant eyes that invite us to see hope in the world today. Amen.

Advent is the period of four Sundays and weeks before Christmas (or sometimes from the 1st December to Christmas Day!). Advent means 'Coming' in Latin. This is the coming of Jesus into the world. Christians use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas.

John 15:1-8The Message (MSG) The Vine and the Branches 15 1-3 ?I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. 4 Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can�¢??t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can�¢??t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. 5-8 �¢??I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you are joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

1 John 3:16-24The Message (MSG) 16-17 This is how weâ??ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to Godâ??s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. When We Practice Real Love 18-20 My dear children, letâ??s not just talk about love; letâ??s practice real love. This is the only way weâ??ll know weâ??re living truly, living in Godâ??s reality. Itâ??s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. 21-24 And friends, once thatâ??s taken care of and weâ??re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, weâ??re bold and free before God! Weâ??re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because weâ??re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is Godâ??s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, â??Peace be with you!â?? 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, â??Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.â?? 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, â??Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyoneâ??s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.â??

About Epiphany Epiphany is commonly known as Three Kingsâ?? Day or the Feast of the Epiphany. It means â??manifestationâ?? or â??showing forthâ??. It is also called Theophany (â??manifestation of Godâ??), especially by Eastern Christians. Epiphany refers not only to the day itself but to the church season that follows it â?? a season that has a varied length because it ends when Lent begins, and this depends on the date of Easter. It commemorates the first two occasions on which Jesusâ?? divinity, according to Christian belief, was manifested: when the three kings (also known as wise men or Magi) visited infant Jesus in Bethlehem, and when John the Baptist baptized him in the River Jordan. The Roman Catholic and Protestant churches emphasize the visit of the Magi when they celebrate the Epiphany. The Eastern Orthodox churches focus on Jesusâ?? baptism. Epiphany is one of the oldest Christian feasts. It was celebrated since the end of the second century, before the Christmas holiday was established. Like other Christian seasons, the church appropriated Epiphany from an old pagan festival. As early as 1996 BCE, the Egyptians celebrated the winter solstice (which then occurred on January 6) with a tribute to Aeon, the Virgin. It is important to note that the holiday was established prior to the Gregorian calendarâ??s introduction. Symbols